Obradovich: The old give-and-take works, lawmakers showed this year

May 26, 2013

Sen. Dennis Guth, R-Klemme, stands among moving boxes on Wednesday in the final hours before the Senate adjourned for the year. / BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER

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You’ve probably heard of the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. In the Iowa Legislature, there are five stages of bipartisanship.

There’s the sunny optimism at the beginning of session, where everyone pledges to work together for the betterment of Iowa. Maybe it’s really just denial. That stage usually lasts about a week.

Then there’s the partisan bickering, which hangs over most of the session. At times, it lets up for a bit. Other times, it sinks into bitterness and acrimony. That’s the anger stage, with a big dose of depression.

Eventually, because there’s no other way to resolve the session, a spirit of compromise develops. Sometimes the bargaining results in nothing more than agreement to disagree and issues are left unresolved. Occasionally, like this year, it means completion of significant legislation.

The session ends with everyone celebrating the accomplishments achieved through bipartisan cooperation.

Before long, however, the parties start dwelling on what was left undone. The partisan divisions come back to the forefront until after the summer fundraising season (or the election, if there is one).

The cycle starts over when the 2014 legislative session begins.

This year, the spark of bipartisanship was late to emerge, but it spread like wildfire. “It’s amazing what happens when you talk to one another instead of over one another,” Senate President Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, said. “And that’s how we finally reached agreement on a number of issues that a lot of people thought we would not be able to achieve.”

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said the seeds of this year’s legislative accomplishments were actually sown at the beginning of the session. He said the House Republicans shifted their thinking about the tasks.

“Instead of identifying specific things that were must-haves, we instead worked out goals and objectives,” he said. That way, instead of being committed to a particular idea, lawmakers were open to various ways of reaching the desired outcome.

Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, agreed. “Speaker Paulsen and I both did our best with our caucuses to get people to not draw lines in the sand,” he said. Paulsen and Gronstal spoke on an Iowa Public Radio interview that aired Friday.

This year, the minority parties also played a significant role in advancing bills. Senate Democrats would not have been able to pass property tax relief without votes from Senate Republicans, led by Minority Leader Bill Dix. That was a big difference from 2012, when Republicans locked up against the “compromise” bill and it failed.

In the House, the 53 Republicans did not have the votes to pass the budget for health and human services and health care expansion for poor Iowans. Democrats, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, could have significantly prolonged the session had they chosen to take advantage. Instead, the bill passed with broad bipartisan approval.

Legislative leaders also worked together this year to push bills through the process designed for compromises: House-Senate conference committees. In theory, the process allows more public scrutiny and broader participation by rank-and-file legislators. In practice, however, many deals still emerged from private meetings.

Gov. Terry Branstad and legislative leaders were justifiably proud that the Legislature, unlike Congress, rose above partisan gridlock. The spirit of bipartisan cooperation might last a little longer this year than it usually does.

The question now — and challenge for our elected officials — is how to maintain those lines of communication and relationships. They could keep the momentum going and make even more progress next year. Or, they could retreat behind their election-year bunkers and give each other grief. I’d rather see progress, but maybe I’m just in denial.